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Furman Standard Grant helps professors shed light on 17th-century music, uncover ancient civilizations
Benjamin Dobbs, Department of Music.
Suresh Muthukrishnan, professor of Earth, environmental and sustainability sciences, and Benjamin Dobbs, assistant professor of music theory, have received this year’s Furman Standard Grant. The three-year internal grants will enable them to take their research to new levels and provide additional experiences for Furman students.
Suresh Muthukrishnan, Department of Earth, Environmental, and Sustainability Sciences.
Muthukrishnan directs the GIS and Remote Sensing Center at Furman. He will pursue three different projects that build on his previous work and chart new territory.
First, Muthukrishnan will assist current archaeological efforts in Turkey by introducing geoarchaeological and geospatial techniques.
The combination of these technologies helps researchers and archaeologists make connections between ground-based observations and large landscape features seen in imagery from above, he said.
In a second initiative that uses a combination of fieldwork and remote sensing, Muthukrishnan will collaborate with a wildlife biologist and an archaeologist at the University of Mpumalanga in South Africa to investigate the long-term drivers of ecosystem changes in Kruger National Park.
“The ecosystem changes we observe today are a culmination of thousands of years of land use by the ancient kingdoms, modern conservation practices and the recent changes in climate,” said Muthukrishnan, who’ll use a novel trans-disciplinary approach to collect data to answer questions that will ultimately guide future conservation policies.
He’ll also lead a pilot project to develop a user-friendly, web-based GIS platform aimed at improving community resilience by bringing easier access to actionable climate and environmental data to inform local planning and decision making, including addressing urban heat and improving green spaces.
Muthukrishnan said these projects present opportunities for external grants, study away and peer-reviewed publications and will spawn new courses that will equip students with technical skills applying geospatial and drone technologies to pursue research across fields like geoarchaeology, ecology, environmental science and sustainability sciences.
“Winning The Furman Standard award is an incredible honor,” Muthukrishnan said. “I’m really excited for the next few years and the opportunity to work alongside researchers on projects around the world. Collaboration and partnerships are critical for developing tools and technologies that help us uncover the past and deepen our understanding of human history and connections.”
Dobbs will use the grant to publish the complete works of 17th century German composer and music theorist Heinrich Grimm.
Grimm served as cantor of the German city Magdeburg and played a critical role in the musical, cultural, religious and civic life there during the first half of the Thirty Years’ War. His career suffered greatly as a result of the Sack of Magdeburg in 1631.
Dobbs aims to make the composer’s work “more broadly accessible again to students, performers, audiences and scholars – to give his work a second life.”
Dobbs will travel to libraries in London, Germany, Poland and Austria where Grimm’s works are housed. He’ll transcribe and edit the works – sometimes filling in missing parts and voices. “It’s something I’ve dreamed about doing for the last 15 years. I’m so thrilled to have the Furman Standard support to finally be able to make it happen,” he said.
Dobbs’s research will benefit students in his Renaissance composition class where students will get a front-row seat to his editing process and how he pieces Grimm’s works together for a modern edition.
Dobbs also plans to collaborate with Stephen Gusukuma, director of the Furman Singers, on readings of Grimm’s work. “I think Furman students will have the first opportunity in almost 400 years to sing some of these compositions,” he said.